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22. Hope
Last Updated:
2024-10-29 19:42:56
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Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 23. Mireille
I spend a pointless few weeks after the second full moon trying to read the outlines of various men’s chests under their clothing. The darkness of my dreams allowed me to relive the sensation of his kiss. How the huge, warm frame of the man inside me tensed before finally relaxing and returning my affection with hot, hungry passion. Unfortunately, just like my dreams, I still woke up alone and clueless. Disappearing into the dark as before, he tapped me three times before vanishing. Too strong for me to hold onto as much as I tried.There isn't much else to do, but daydream now, the boiler is safe. Might as well try and rule out some of the men it can’t be. I had thought the tension would wind down after the full moon, but it’s still there. Conversations are stilted, friendships being tested. I’ve walked past two more brawls in the past week. Fingers are being chopped off by Raze for multiple offences. Raze appears to have relaxed the ban on moonshine, though, judging by the stench
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 24. Cal
The third full moon has landed. For once I have my emotions in check. I’ve been drinking that vile tea since the lights came on for breakfast. I’m not being locked up again.“Looks like you’re afraid of not controlling yourself Cal,” Vera purred, taking a seat opposite me. I grimaced and placed the half-empty cup back on the table. She sat, passing me a bowl of porridge and dried fruit she’d decided to fetch me. I didn’t ask for it. When I didn’t answer, she batted her eyelashes and topped up her flirting with, "Wouldn't have thought that was an issue for you.""Thank you for the food." Is the best reply I can muster.I’ll never eat a fucking sultana again after this winter. They’re never-ending down here. I want fresh fish, caught by my own hand but too much of that thinking will leave me frustrated. Tonight I am calm. Placid. In control.“Hey, you okay, seem a bit out of it over there?” Vera smiles, placing her small hand on top of mine. I try not to flinch away, I still need her
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 25. Hope
I had my big cry a month ago. I let everything out on that library floor until my eyes hurt and throat stung. Then I packed all the hurt away. In the same way I don’t allow myself to think about my mother’s horrific passing too much. I box it up. Keep going.I haven’t forgotten her, I just can’t look inside that brain-box and handle the wealth of emotions that will fly at me. It’s too much. Especially down here. Plus, since Cal was locked up. I know the other pilgrims are treating me differently. I think they see his reformation of character into Ervin’s bestie as getting himself away from trouble. Namely me. Like I'm his downfall when he was so very nearly mine.Alongside that, Vera is so fake it makes me want to pull those blonde ringlets straight off her head."Hey if you want to work out with us you're so welcome!""Hope you look so rustic with your hair like that!""Cal you're so funny! Hope did you know Cal was such a tease?"Spare me.But my Papa is so happy. He’s eating, dri
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 26. Cal
I will take ten rounds of running into gunfire over forcing those words out again. I don’t do that kind of thing. Girls come to me. That’s how the game plays out normally. Alpha energy and all that.But Hope? I’ll crawl over broken glass. I’ll beg. I don’t care as long as she doesn’t run from this moment. Rocking a charcoal smudge on her forehead, copper wisps of hair curling about her face, Hope has a terrifyingly tight hold over me. As soon as Reu left, I knew what I wanted. My rehearsals for our conversation were, of course, rendered irrelevant immediately. It wasn't meant to be in the cell. It should have been the library. I should have said how beautiful she looked, but I accidentally insulted her.Prickly, stubborn, refusing to yield. I’m surrounded by landmines, every sentence a disaster. But I can see her eyes glowing with pink shards. Even if she won’t admit it to herself, her wolf is charging forward. Her pear and freesia arousal cloaks my brain, weakening my vocabulary t
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 27. Mireille
After the riots, there was no exciting build-up to this full moon. Everything was tense, way too quiet. Just one spark of disagreement could set the whole thing off again. Men who had acted like brothers now cut each other dead in corridors. Nobody cleaned the dried blood outside my room. Burgundy handprints swiping down, men still limping around on makeshift crutches.Waking up to another piece of paper under my door didn’t help. ‘I AM WATCHING, MY ANGEL, DO NOT FORGET’ in a ragged, cursive script. Who the hell thinks I’m their angel? What are they watching anyway. Me being terrified. Or perhaps they didn't like Cyrus in my room. Or maybe it's Cyrus disliking Raze’s interest in me.It seems others are receiving notes. Maybe this letter writer is just out to gaslight us all for some ulterior motive. It’s gameplay at it’s cruellest. I don’t want it to be the hazel-eyed Cyrus, but he’s the most mysterious. Perhaps he has the opportunity? Worryingly, the new writing is too jagged to
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 28. Cyrus
This is a complete and utter fuck up. She was never meant to know it was me. I took one too many chances.I’ve done my best to keep my distance. Followed every order. Allowed the other Rogues to form their own impression of me. It’s mostly wrong, but not all of it. I am dangerous. Too much of me is tainted to ever be made into a good man. So why did I follow her when she placed her hand in mine? My brain tells me I need to work out who sabotaged the lights first. Make my excuses and leave. Except all I can see is Mireille. I’ve adored her body enough in the dark to form an image in my head for when I stand alone in silence. Her bare, womanly shape was more enticing and beautiful than I’d dared to imagine, except she’s covered in blood. Blood I spilled, a painfully familiar sight.Ryan and Sven, have I killed them? Do I even care considering how they were behaving? Not really. She opens her door and guides me back into her tiny little room. “Come in,” she whispers, the slight trem
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 29. Hope
“For one night. I…I want to call you mine,” he said. Well we both know one night won’t be enough.I’ve not only chosen to sleep with him, I’m pretty sure I’ve signed up to be some kind of undercover, traitorous rebel as well. To be honest I could have agreed to give him a lung, kidney and leg. I was that deranged with lust. The instant I knew something was going to happen between, life transformed into a heated, out of body experience.Laid together panting on the floor of the cell block, the step we had chosen to take loomed ominously large. “Hey, you with me?” Cal grunts softly. Pretending he's cool with one night, leaving my choices open. I know he is trying to stop me feeling guilty. It only makes me fall deeper.“Stuck with you,” I grin. I rolled onto my side, my head on his shoulder, his arm trailed down my spine. The sensation of his fingertips tracing patterns down my bare skin made me nuzzle in closer. My own fingers tease the fine, soft hair that covered his chest, down
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 30. Cal
After the full moon, I lie in my lonely bed and replay every precious minute, pad in hand.My simple sketches are random snatches of thoughts. Just the curve of her shoulder, the way her hair falls. I don't have a clue what I'm doing, but I'm trying.I kid myself it's good practice. A way to pass time. Rather than admit the truth. I'm preparing myself something to remember her by when this Freeze is over. After all, out of sight is out of mind. We both know that when Ryan stands in front of her, it could all disintegrate.I might be a fool for her, but I'm not naive.As the week wears on, it seems like Hope and I got away with it. Which only seems to give Vera the impression she has a chance.The leaders and pilgrims were all tucked up sound asleep whilst we found each other. Vera thinks I was shut away in the cells alone. Pining for female attention. Unfortunately, she's promising to make sure I'm not lonely next time. I need to wriggle out of that one promptly.Hope's new tactics
Last Updated : 2024-10-29
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Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness EPILOGUE - CYRUS
Standing in the courtyard, I can feel my heart racing. It’s a strange feeling to know you’re going to die in a few minutes. I made my vow to Mireille all those years ago. I’ve been an Alpha of the North, overseen peace, and brought up our beautiful children, but this is the vow that matters. Because this promise was the one that eased my angel’s mind. Knowing we would have this final offering to the Moon Goddess and pray it is enough to free our children. /I love you/ I whisper to her, noticing her hands shake. I take her hand in mine and squeeze it. /You don’t have to do this/ she links back, her voice still as soft and light as the day I met her. Age has barely touched her. I am most definitely grizzled and rough around the edges. She is ethereal. Her pale green eyes shimmering with love and sadness, her white hair plaited tightly. She’s wearing a simple white dress. I insisted on wearing my huge winter fur. It seemed the right thing for me. /Wait, I want something/ I urge. I h
Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness EPILOGUE - MIREILLE
The last twenty years have been a rollercoaster, to say the least. That night in the hail, when Cyrus pulled me back from the brink and I spilt every single woe from the bottom of my soul to him, was the turning point. Since the triplets' birth, I had walked around with lead weights in my shoulders, dragging me down. Guilt chipped away at my self-confidence. To the point when I didn’t even feel I could be a Luna. Standing at the top of that tower, thinking the isolation helped clear y mind when it only bogged me further down in the doubt. Cyrus changed all of that. He took my guilt and made a solemn vow. Twenty years. If we can’t fix it together in twenty years, we will offer ourselves to the Moon Goddess. After that night in the hail, I cried for two days in a row. Once whipped away from the beam, the full horror of what I’d almost done was crushing. I couldn’t look at the children without damning myself all over again. Cyrus though, he became the Alpha. With everyone’s bl
Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness EPILOGUE HOPE
If it wasn’t for the three women I lived with and little Opal I’d have lost my mind. Delilah hadn't changed from our blessed childhood friendship. Morgan’s mate Nell was full of bizarre ideas for preserving food and practising emergency drills. Lyra remained stoic and calm. Our lighthouse of sense and hope. Opal cried for her Daddy, and I had to try not to join in with her. I had to promise her he would come back, based on nothing but pure, desperate hope. It turned into full-scale war out there. The various Rogue armies were enormous, but they never quite made it to Filney. We were prepared, though. Thanks to Nell, we each had a gun safely stored by the bed. Escape routes planned. Little Opal still slept with me, keeping her close to my heart. Finally, one day, they returned. Trucks pulling in to Lyras white walled villa woke us up. One by one, we all screamed with excitement. Cal didn’t even try to trick or provoke me. He just pulled up the truck and sprinted towards us.
Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness EPILOGUE - HOPE
**FOUR YEARS LATER** I don’t know how time flew by so quickly. Everything Cal promised me has come true. We have bickered, disagreed, and walked down the beach in a huff. Mainly me each time, knowing he would be sat on the porch waiting for me with an amused smile. That lopsided grin that makes my stomach flip. We never stopped fighting for each other. Not for a second. It's been everything and more. That first morning, dozing in the hammock together, I woke up with a start. Realising the time, how late I was for retrieving poor Button made me scramble and swing so violently he crashed to the floor all over again. “You know I might ban you from my lovely hammock,” he groaned. I just laughed and pulled him up, pretending to rub his muscular shoulders, back, chest better until he growled and finally bent me over that porch. It was perfect. Of course, Button was absolutely fine with Declan and Lyra. They were already playing on the beach with her, Declan, having his toes burie
Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness EPILOGUE - CYRUS
“Shit, the weather look,” she whispers, lifting her head up from my bare chest. From our cosy tower room, we can see wind is starting to howl, hail pelting the glass. The first savage winter snowstorms have begun.“It’s time to start prepping,” I grunt with disappointment, sitting up to get a better look. My beautifully naked angel sits in between my legs, allowing me to start nuzzling my chin against her neck. Her hand absentmindedly trails up and runs through my dark hair, keeping me close to her. “We’ll be underground for the first moon,” I add, which is the only thought that makes the idea of humping all those supplies down below bearable.“Hmm, you might be right. Let’s see how it goes,” she whispers back in a soft little voice before turning to plant a loving kiss on my grizzled cheek. “Better get dressed,” she groaned before pushing me down back onto the mattress and climbing on top of me. My fingertips brushed against her still red, warm asscheek and she jumped at the sensat
Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness EPILOGUE - MIREILLE
** TWO YEARS LATER **The first snows have landed. The next full moon is a fortnight away, but we will probably be underground before then. No pilgrims have arrived this month either. Things are a lot quieter at the Fortress these days. The grand days of my parents' first few years have definitely waned. A trickle of pilgrims instead of floods now make the dangerous journey over the mountain tops.I still stand at the top of the fortress and watch the sun descend. Every night, I stare at the black ridges of the mountains. I did it as a child. I did it the night before the rogues arrived and turned my life upside down. Now I stand every night we are above ground and observe its fiery descent and try to be thankful for what I have. Three wonderful children. A mate who worships me. Loyal, wonderful friends and family who made the last two freezes more than bearable. At first, I struggled with my survival. When Cyrus held me in his arms and told me dozens of times how he doesn’t need
Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 103. Hope
“Hey there,” wasn’t the smoothest opener, but there was nothing else I could say. In the same way he knew my heart would melt for the flowers he put in the inn, he must have known that I would make some kind of entrance. My coppery hair is down, catching the breeze. For once I felt like a queen in my black dress after leaving Button with her kind-of adoptive grandparents. It’s tight, strapless, hugging my curves and showing off my long legs just as I intended. I don’t want my reunion with Cal to be about Button, as much as I love my little wonder. We'll get there, after tonight. After all, this moment has been a few days in the making. Cal’s not the only one capable of making plans. In fact, the first people I saw were Lyra and Declan. When I produced Button from out of the passenger seat, I felt a surge of panic. “She’s not Cal’s,” I said too quickly to sound polite. Then, allowing her to scamper off merrily towards the sand, I added softly, “She’s technically not mine either. I’
Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 102. Cal
It’s a good job Hope was still asleep when I left. Otherwise, she might have caught up to me parked on the side of the road, still completely torn in two as to whether my gesture was romantic or insane. I ran my hands through my shaggy brown curls so many times it’s a wonder I wasn’t bald when I finally pulled up to the shoreline. Nine months after setting off I’m finally home. I raced home in dangerously quick time, panic-stops excluded. Because I have a home to build. A life to prepare. Howen and Pearl’s old villa at Finley is still magnificent, but it hasn’t been lived in for over five years. When I knocked on the door, there was only my mother there. Half a second of shock was followed by fifteen minutes of being almost throttled by her cuddles and kisses. Her long black hair was wavy from her morning swim, her gentle face full of worry. She quickly explained that my father had left to help Mireille and Cyrus after being summoned.. “So…what happened with Hope? I’m guessing tha
Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 101. Cyrus
Only after she fell unconscious did the room check who was actually capable of performing such surgery. Sven and Quinn immediately pointed to me and my heart sank to its lowest, darkest depths.Slicing open her soft, perfect skin was terrifying. The tautness of her bump meant every cut felt far too deep yet not enough. Plus, if I didn’t hurry, the medication would wear off and leave her enduring more pain at full volume.With my poor angels whimpering cries finally silenced, you could hear nothing but the tearing, slicing sound of raw flesh as I cut ever deeper. With everyone's eyes burning into me, the blade shook in my hand.. “Hurry, this is no time for hesitation,” Arlen insisted. Stifling a growl, I steeled myself and made a sweeping horizontal incision. Then it was a mad rush to gather the babies. Cords were snipped, Arlen telling what to remove and what to stitch. I blindly followed, vaguely aware of tiny cries in the background but unable to do anything but care for my pale,
